ATTITUDE OF DIFFERENT CONSUMER GROUPS REGARDING PRODUCT LABELS WITH REDUCED SODIUM CONTENT

To generate positive purchase intention, reduced sodium products need to meet the needs of consumers and be recognized in the market. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the factors that influence intention to purchase products with sodium reduction, using focus group and conjoint analysis. In preliminary sessions, through focus groups, sociodemographic data of the participants were identified. Furthermore, three factors were selected with three levels for the assembly of the labels to be used in the conjoint analysis: product (pepperoni, fresh cheese and parmesan cheese), claims (less 25% sodium, less sodium content and light), Label color (blue, green, red). Nine label images were created and these images were presented to 745 consumers, who were asked to evaluate the purchase intention. Participants were separated into groups to allow three different comparisons. In the first comparison, participants were grouped into 4 different groups: Group 1 (Active men), Group 2 (Sedentary men), Group 3 (Active women), Group 4 (Sedentary women). Consumers were grouped into gender (male and female) in the second comparison. And in the third comparison, the participants were grouped according to the practice of physical exercises (active and sedentary). In general, the purchase was intentionally affected by the claims, product type and color of the label. The groups with the highest relative importance were formed by sedentary men, men and sedentary. The claim "light", product "parmesan cheese" and the color "red" had a negative impact on the purchase intention for all groups evaluated. Fresh cheese was the product that had the greatest positive impact. The most positive influence was "25% less sodium" for all groups and for the color, the most influential was the blue. Thus, the purchase was intentionally affected by the claims, product type and color of the label.